Love Between Two Worlds - Chapter 26

Chapter 26 — The Father

The heartbeat came again. Once. Twice. A third time. The First World trembled with every pulse.

Amelia couldn't move. The voice still echoed inside her, ancient and impossibly vast.

Children.

Adrian stood beside her, his eyes completely white.

"Adrian?"

No answer. She tightened her grip on his hand, and his fingers moved — just enough.

"I'm here," he whispered.

Relief hit her hard enough to buckle her knees. The white light beyond the silver forest kept building. Trees bent away from it. The First People pressed their foreheads to the ground.

Seraphine stayed on her knees. Aurelia didn't move. Even Lucien had let his blade fall.

"You're afraid," Amelia said to him.

"I've never seen him." His eyes stayed fixed on the burning forest.

"But you knew he existed."

"I knew the stories."

"What stories?"

"That before the Hollow, there was its creator."

"Who was he?"

His voice dropped. "The first being."

A deep crack split the sky. The silver clouds opened, and something stepped through.

Amelia's breath caught. At first she saw only a silhouette — impossibly tall, roughly human in shape, a body made of shifting darkness and white light. His face refused to hold still in her vision; every time she looked, it changed. Young. Old. Human. Not human.

Then his eyes opened. Completely white. Just like Adrian's.

"No," Adrian whispered.

The figure stopped, its gaze finding him. "Guardian."

Adrian's body went rigid. Amelia stepped in front of him.

The figure looked at her instead. "Queen."

"I'm not your Queen."

Something close to amusement crossed his face. "No." The word rolled through the First World. "You are not."

"Then what am I?"

He walked closer, and the ground changed beneath his feet — grass to stone, stone to glass, glass to nothing at all. "You are the first choice made after the beginning."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"It's the only one that matters."

"Leave her alone," Adrian said, stepping forward.

The Father's attention shifted to him. "Still protecting her."

"Yes."

"Still believing protection is love."

"And you believe it isn't?"

"I believe love is the first prison."

Silence. Amelia and Adrian looked at each other — something in the Father's words felt too familiar.

"The Crown," Amelia whispered.

His eyes moved to the fragments circling her. "The Crown was born from fear."

"The Veil?"

"Fear."

"The Hollow?"

"Fear."

"Then everything started because someone was afraid."

He nodded. "Not everything." He lifted a hand, and the First World vanished.

A vast field stretched beneath one endless sky. No cities, no kingdoms, no Veil, no Crown, no Hollow — people and creatures moving freely across the land together, laughing, fighting, loving, building.

It was beautiful.

A girl appeared — silver-haired, young. Aurelia. Beside her stood Seris, and between them a young man Amelia recognized immediately.

Adrian. Not hers. The first Guardian, though he wasn't a Guardian yet — just a boy smiling while Aurelia held his hand and Seris laughed beside them.

Behind them, small and almost human, was the Hollow. A child.

Amelia's chest ached. "They were happy."

"Yes," the Father said.

"What happened?"

He didn't answer. The vision shifted. Aurelia was older now, Seris crying, the first Guardian standing between them. Someone else had joined them — dark-haired, black-eyed. Seraphine, holding something in her hands: a shard of white light.

"What is that?" Amelia asked.

"The first wound."

The vision moved again — Seraphine pressing the light against the Hollow. It screamed. The First World shook. Aurelia ran toward them, shouting for her to stop, but she didn't.

The Hollow's small body stretched. Its eyes multiplied. Its face dissolved into darkness spreading across the field. The first Guardian drew his blade, Seris screamed his name, and Aurelia raised both hands.

The Veil appeared.

"It wasn't made to imprison the Hollow," Amelia said.

"No."

"It was made to separate the Hollow from the First World."

"No."

"Then why?"

His eyes darkened. "To separate you from it."

Amelia froze. "Me?"

"The Hollow was not born evil." In the vision, the creature turned toward Amelia — small, lonely, afraid — and reached for her.

The vision shattered. She gasped and stumbled back into Adrian's arms.

"What did you see?"

"The Hollow. It was afraid."

"It still is," the Father said.

The Hollow behind them screamed — but this time it wasn't rage Amelia heard. It was pain.

Mother.

She turned. It wasn't looking at Seraphine.

It was looking at her.

"No," Seraphine whispered.

The Father lowered his hand. "She remembers."

"Who?" Amelia asked.

"You."

Aurelia rose sharply. "That's impossible."

"You've forgotten too much," he told her. "The first Queen did not sacrifice herself to create the Veil."

"Then what happened?" Amelia asked.

Aurelia's voice barely carried. "I don't know."

The Father answered for her. "She chose the Hollow."

Silence.

"That's not what the stories said," Adrian said.

"The stories were written by those who survived."

"And the truth?"

"Was buried."

The ring on Amelia's finger began to burn, black smoke coiling beneath the silver. The Father noticed. "You still carry the mark."

"What mark?"

"The memory of the first choice." He stepped closer. "When the First World broke, someone had to remain behind."

"Who?"

His eyes went to the Hollow. "The Queen."

"No," Aurelia whispered.

"You stayed."

"I sacrificed myself."

"You volunteered."

"I had to."

"You chose it."

Her voice broke. "Because there was no other way."

"There was."

Silence fell over everyone. "What way?" Amelia asked.

His gaze moved between her and Adrian. "You."

"No," Adrian said immediately.

"The first Queen and the first Guardian were given a choice. To separate the worlds — or to become the bridge between them."

Amelia's heart stopped. "Like us."

"Yes."

"Then why didn't they?" Adrian asked.

"They did."

"Then what happened?"

The Father turned toward the burning forest. "One of them changed her mind."

Every eye turned to Aurelia. She was crying.

"I was afraid," she said, barely audible. "I saw what the Hollow had become. What it could do. And I couldn't trust it. So I chose the Veil."

"You chose it without him," Seris said, stepping forward.

"I thought I was saving him."

"You separated him from himself."

"I thought I was saving the worlds."

"You built the prison."

"And you let me."

Seris's composure finally broke. "Because I loved you."

Silence. Amelia looked at Adrian, whose expression had gone distant.

"That's why the first Guardian disappeared," he said.

The Father nodded. "He wasn't consumed by the Crown."

"Then where did he go?"

"He became the first memory."

A cold shiver moved through Amelia. "Inside the Veil?"

"Inside the blood."

Adrian suddenly dropped to one knee, hands pressed to his head.

"Adrian!"

White light burst out of him. The Crown fragments around Amelia flew toward him. The First World shook, the Hollow screamed, and Adrian screamed with it.

Then a second voice came out of his mouth. Not his. Not the Father's.

A woman's voice.

"Amelia."

She froze. It was Eleanor's voice — but Eleanor stood several feet away, staring at Adrian in horror.

"That's not me," the real Eleanor said.

Adrian's head lifted, his white eyes finding Amelia's, and the borrowed voice spoke again.

"Don't trust the Father."

The Father turned, anger crossing his face for the first time. "Eleanor."

She stepped forward. "You should have stayed dead."

"I tried," she said, smiling sadly.

His gaze cut to Amelia. "She is lying."

Tears filled Eleanor's eyes. "No." She looked at Amelia. "I'm not."

"Then tell me the truth," Amelia said.

Eleanor hesitated, and the entire First World seemed to hold its breath. Finally she whispered, "The Father didn't create the Hollow."

Amelia's blood ran cold. "Then who did?"

Eleanor's eyes moved to the darkness. "The Hollow created him."

The Father went completely still. Seraphine rose slowly. Aurelia stared. Lucien murmured something too quiet to hear. And Adrian's white eyes widened.

Eleanor took one step toward Amelia. "That's why the First World was closed."

"Why?"

"Because the Father isn't the beginning." She looked at the enormous figure beyond the forest. "He's the first thing the Hollow ever dreamed."

The Hollow screamed. The sky tore open. And the Father smiled.

"Finally."

The darkness behind him opened like an enormous eye.

"Now you remember."

The ground vanished beneath Amelia and Adrian, and they fell together into the dark. As Amelia reached for his hand, the last thing she heard was the Father's voice, low and almost gentle.

"Welcome home, children."